Don't rely on drunken parents to deal kindly with their children. The scraps of information the feckless John Durbeyfield picked up about his D'Urberville ancestors were not just enough to give him delusions of grandeur, but also enough to kill his daughter and grandchild.
Theatreworks faithfully tracked this falling down, utilising the collective skills of five actors to play the many characters.
Thomas Hardy's novel, set in the fictitious Wessex, presents the immeasurably tragic story of John's daughter Tess.
Expected to put in a good word with the supposedly rich relatives, she is seduced, through no fault of her own, into a world of pain, indignity and humiliation.
Her short-lived baby, whom the Vicar even refused to baptise, is even named Sorrow.
Natalie Bell's consistently fine Tess was a pleasure to watch. Her naivety and misplaced faith were delicately drawn, and Ali Gorton's careful direction ensured that her fate was both credible and inescapable.
Dominic Ward's dual role of Alec and Angel, the men in her life, was imaginatively developed.
The swarthy gentleman with the curling black moustache, and the eager young man who first spotted Tess at a country dance, appear dissimilar.
But their mutually stubborn pride, born of over-indulgence on the one hand and immaturity on the other, render them incapable of really loving Tess until it's too late.
An excellent production which showed considerable insight into the text – let's hope they have a chance to adapt Hardy's other tales.
